Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Skipper, Mervyn
Tagged: Author.
(1886-1958) Australian journalist and writer whose Meeting Pool Beast Fables – The Meeting Pool: A Tale of Borneo (coll 1929 UK) and The White Man's Garden: A Tale of Borneo (coll of linked stories 1930 UK) – presents with considerable energy a series of exemplary tales about proper relationships among the participating animals (as portrayed by the plants of the garden); and, more sadly, lessons in humanity's inevitable triumph over the prelapsarian life of Borneo. The Fooling of King Alexander (1967 chap) is an illustrated version of a tale from the second Meeting Pool volume. Later Skipper became involved with the Montsalvat artists' colony near Melbourne, where he lived from 1935 until his death; of the 100 or so unpublished manuscripts held at Montsalvat, some may be fantasies. [JC]
Mervyn Garnham Skipper
links